"Last road to see before you die" for mad motorists and visual candy for location-starved Hollywood producers: depending on your driving experience (not on your "Need for Speed" scores) and your outlook on life, these roads can be either the ultimate, or the scariest travel destination. (this page is a part of our bigger series, read it all here)

Want to feel happy and safe? Then gaze on this picture for a while, because the rest of this page is only going to unnerve and distress you.

There is no free lunch. If "Fairy Meadows" sounds like a heavenly destination, the way to reach them can be expected to look like a road to hell. Sure enough, it's a 10-km single lane road leading to one of the highest peaks in the world, Nanga Parbat in Pakistan. From Raikot Bridge (over the Indus River) to Tato village, the view gets better and the road gets dizzier:

Admittedly, the road has been built by the residents of Tato and the Pakistani Government had no part in it - which means you can't sue anybody if the worst happens. However, once you get to the Fairy Meadows, the scenery is heavenly enough:

Another great road-challenged destination in Pakistan is Deosai National Park. Deosai means Land of Giants, and it is one of the highest plateaus in the world. Here is a nerve-wracking bridge crossing, braved by fearless local drivers:

Aptly named Bridge of Big Water (Bara Pani), this suspension bridge is pretty adequate for Deosai, which is snowbound most of the year with Himalayan brown bears being the only population for many months.

Africa is a continent with so many roads in dangerous condition that it requires its own page. Who has ever heard of Weldiya, Lalibela Road in Ethiopia? At 12,000 ft, be glad nobody asks you to drive an overloaded truck there:

However, one road - Transfagarasanul Road through the Carpathian Mountains - stands out from the rest.

The Fagaras mountain range features the Fagaras Castle, a Medieval stronghold of Transylvanian Princes, used in the 1950s as a prison for opponents and dissidents of the Communist State of Romania. There are also ruins of Poienari Castle, Vlad the Impaler's real castle, lurking on this route, to get your blood flowing. As you can see, some Van Helsing action can be almost guaranteed... in the ever-present mist:

"From 500 to over 1700m high, mostly not paved, with creeks running on the road - all with standard Ford Focus and a whole family inside!"

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3. Germany:
Want even more excitement? How about driving on a racetrack that is open to the paying public?

I am talking about Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany - the greatest & most challenging race circuit in the world.

Ever since Germans started building the autobahns (as part of the Nazi's plan to revive the economy), we've come to think of driving in Germany as fast, exciting and safe experience:

But for those who are willing to up the stakes and risk their lives, there is the option to book a few laps at Nürburgring Nordschleife - also called "The Green Hell" - a foggy and ridiculously twisty forest route. It is said that there is one fatality per week (so take out an insurance policy before tackling it).

One reader tells us: "There is a scary story of a biker that had an accident throwing him and his machine into the woods. Although not killed in the crash, he died there because nobody noticed the accident."

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You think Gary, Indiana, has potholes?

Think again:

(image credit: Reuters)

Maybe not so dangerous looking, the following road has deadly statistics: the Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City, Philippines, in terms of deaths and accidents is far more dangerous than even the Halsema Highway (which we featured in Part 3). It's known as "killer highway" to the locals: most deaths are blamed on too much traffic congestion and chaos.

There are plenty of hair-raising mountain roads in U.S (see our extreme off-roading article): some of the great routes include Gold Camp Road (from Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek), the road up to Yankee Boy Basin, or the highway from Ouray to Silverton (all in Colorado)

Idaho Springs, Colorado, also sports a nice drive called the Oh My God Road. In the same state, there are roads up to the summits of Mt. Evans, Pike's Peak, Black Bear Pass, Mosquito Pass... the list goes on. Canada beckons north of the border with some wicked 4x4 roads, too.

It's frustrating when you can only afford fleeting glances around you, trying to keep the car on the road - and some of the best scenery on Earth passes you by. Check out, for example, this twisty road in Morocco's Atlas mountains, offering an awesome view on the Dades Gorge:

Hike the Deepest Canyon in the World! No, it's not the Grand Canyon, it's the Colca Canyon in Peru, which for hundreds of kilometers maintains a depth of 3400 meters (around 2 miles). That's more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon!

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20 Comments:

"It is said that there is one fatality per week" - Someone who actually did research (asking the local police station) found rather lower numbers, even if 3-12 per year is still a lot. http://www.nurburgring.org.uk/warning.html

I was there few years ago on that road in Transylvania. My second scariest ride ever (number one was also in Romania). I was there on biztrip and had to go across Romania from one corner to another. I decided to make it a little more enjoyable and visited Dracula's castle/ruins (Poienari). After that i stayed on that road in the mountains. On map it look like a nice ride across mountains. In reality I was scared to death.

I had some help for that feeling: heavy rain started, which started some mud avalanches (don't know the right English word for it) and flooding the road. As i got higher in the hill, cellphone lost signal, because there is no network... And as an added bonus - my fuel gauge was right at the bottom. On the way up i passed some locals riding horses and a few ghost(ish) villages. At one point there were PET bottles blocking the way, but i got through. Soon after that i understand that warning. After one sharp turn the road just ended. It was all covered in snow. Absolutely no chance to keep going, even on foot. To make it even more unpleasant, right there was an abandoned truck, partially covered in snow. Apparently some time ago he was stopped by the same snow, and could not go back, because the road was too narrow for a truck to turn over.

At that point i was really really scared. No phone, almost no fuel, raining as hell... I turned back and driving crazy fast (just to get to the point where there is phone signal) headed back down. My luck - it was all the way down, which helped saving fuel. I managed to get back down to the city and went straight to the nearest petrol station.

This probably doesn't sound very scary, but then and there it really was :)

Here are some pics from that trip: http://picasaweb.google.lv/jybook/Hungarija#

Don't fall for the Nazi Autobahn propaganda myth. In fact, the democratic Reich had already built Autobahns and put them into operation before the Nazis gained power. Their propaganda effectively made people believe that the Fuehrer's order to build Autobahns created lots of jobs and helped struggling Germany to overcome unemployment, which is not true. First, the democratic Reich had already put up significant amounts of capital for exactly that purpose, second, the number of people working to build Autobahns was negleglible small number compared to the 6 million jobless Germans.

@jealousy :If you had looked for information before going on your, i quote, "second scariest ride ever" you would have known that part of that road is closed every year by the authorities until june or sometimes even july exactly because of the heavy snowing that is normal in wintertime there.For someone who gets scared of PET bottles and forgets to check the fuel before going on a trip, i can understand how that was scary, bu-hu-hu :)

I drove the road trough the transilvanian alps too ... It's not a bad road actually, it's especially spectacular. The road has quite some holes in them but nothing really crazy. We, too, got blocked eventually by the snow - but If you're ever driving by car from Bucharest to Sibiu, somewhere after may - really, take this road, it'll be the most beautiful you ever took

I've been to Tajikistan, and the highway connecting the two major cities of that country (Dushanbe and Khudjand) is almost as scaring as the first road in this series. The road from Dushanbe to Khorog (a town in eastern Tajikistan) is even more scaring.Both roads are unpaved, and they go through mountain passes over 3,300 meters high. They are really spectacular! Please check these ones for your next series!

Wasn't even expecting a mention of Colorado's mountain passes - Bravo! We have lots that will tighten the sphincter and aren't for inexperienced flatlanders who don't know how to use 4x4 on shelf roads, handle crazy grades and "roads" that are as wide as a hiking trail and have boulders as tall as a sedan. hahaha. Certainly not as crazy as the deadliest one in Bolivia, but there are certainly some old mining roads and passes here that qualify as some of the world's most dangerous roads. Anyway, glad to see Colorado got a mention!

Wow, those are some sketchy looking roads! This road certainly doesn't compare to any of the ones shown in your series, but I have been on it and it was pretty hair-raising for me. It is the Illinois River Road in Oregon, National Forest route 4103, which is the eastern access road to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. I couldn't find any pics of the road, but I did find this topo map.

As you can see, there are stretches where there is a sheer 300 - 400 foot drop into the Illinois River on one side. That, and the fact that it is an unpaved road built on serpentine, makes it quite treacherous in rainy conditions. Serpentine is very slippery when wet, and the road surface has a slight angle towards the cliff edge in certain areas. No guard rail, of course. Thanks for the series!